Deeper into His Presence. It began decades ago, a divinely appointed time every New Year’s Eve spent before the Lord during the third watch. Like other intimate times dwelling in His presence, these bring forth watchwords via images/visions, scripture, worship, and deep intercession—but are often focused on the newly emerged year.

 

I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1
 

© desireofmysoul.faith (.com and .org) & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

 

AUDIO VERSION (10-minutes): Click link below.

 

 

READING TIME: 10 MINUTES

 

WATCHWORD GIVEN: At the stroke of midnight (heralding in January 1, 2026) through the third watch (midnight to 3 am).

 
 

This detailed account of the recent watchword from the Lord is shared solely to encourage you and to point the way to our King, His character, His call.

 

It’s birthed from a longstanding, appointed midnight rendezvous with the Lord every New Year’s Eve. This year’s unfolded into four interconnected components:

 

1. the ROCK

2. an indestructible, immutable covenantal promise

3. specific scriptures etched in rocky clefts

4. a word of counsel and caution for 2026

 

This post covers the parts I feel led to share from my journaled notes.

 

It starts with the last one—the word of counsel—to set the guardrails because the other three components are needed to walk and stay within those guardrails.

 

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HIS WORD of COUNSEL

 

Seek His face now.

Because in 2026, you will need His Rest.

 

When I heard that from Him, I realized the converse was also true: If we don’t stay in His Presence and seek His face regularly, intentionally, meaningfully, we’ll spend 2026 thrashing in panic-driven waters and relying on self-striving—all of it diametrically opposed to being in His rest.
 

Spiritually speaking, the soul can hear, taste, see, smell, feel. Resting in Him starts by purposefully, hungrily, intensely going deeper into His Presence, your soul riveted to Him, submerged in Him, pursuing Him so you can more genuinely and relationally know, hear, serve, and honor Him.

 

Dwelling (residing and abiding) in His rest takes leaving the shallow waters. Moving forward in Him with abandon. Actively trusting His character, kingship, and authority in every crevice of your being. Removing self from the helm and surrendering to His command, His voice, His way, (and, yes) His timing.

 

A lifetime-learning of dying to self.

 

In The Pursuit of God, theologian A. W. Tozer says we must have an “acute desire” to pursue God because “He waits to be wanted.”

 

Indeed, He must.

 

Psalm 29 resounds with that two-sided desire, declaring that the voice of the LORD is powerful, majestic, dividing flames of fire, shaking the wilderness . . . and reminds us that the LORD sat as King at the time of the flood and still sits as King, now and forever . . . [therefore] . . . Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name.

 

Seeking His face, His Presence/Rest, with abandon establishes secured spiritual guardrails to hem you in, steady your soul, balance your walk, align your thinking with His heart (per Romans 12:2), and prioritizing Him over this world’s inverted sense of primacy and amid its disruptive, raging waters.
 

A violent storm developed on the sea,

and the boat was being swamped by the waves;

but Jesus was asleep.

His disciples woke Him, shouting,

“Save us, Lord; we’re sinking!”

He said, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?”

Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea,

and there was great calm.

The men marveled and asked,

“What kind of a man is this,

that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

—Matthew 8:24-27

 
 

❖❖❖❖

 
 

 
 

THE ROCK

&

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE, IMMUTABLE PROMISE

 

While worshiping during the third watch, I was permitted to move deeper into His Presence, His quiet. I sensed myself climbing up a rope ladder, vivid spiritually in sight and touch.
 

In time, the rope rungs became glittered—as did my fisted hands each time they gripped the higher rungs. I was entering another level of intimacy, a secreted, quieted soul-to-soul place with and in Him, where His voice sounds in the attentive stillness.

 

A familiar, comforting object appeared: the formidable bell-arched gate prominently bearing His Holy Name. A name synonymous with His character and His unequivocal, rightful authority and power over all.

 

I AM

 
 

Once inside the gate, I saw the Rock further ahead, a steep mountain—rugged, commanding, its towering presence tugged at my soul.

 

I made my way toward the Rock by walking through rows of soft, tall wheat and trumpet-shaped daffodils. The wheat, a reminder of God’s spiritual harvest and our reliance on Him and our Messiah, the true Bread of Life .

 

Jesus said, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”
 

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.”

 

Jesus said, “I AM the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

—John 6:27, 32-33, 35

 

The horned daffodils, a reminder of God’s shofar-resounding VOICE at Sinai (Exodus 19) and the biblical shofar’s red alerts calling us to action.

 

Once I began climbing the rugged Rock, water gently streamed down from on high as my hands found secured clefts, anchor points, to steady and balance my soul-body.

 

Please make a note of those words . . . secured cleft, anchor points, steady and balance.

 

Climbing higher, I saw this before me: the year (2026) and right below it, a scripture reference—Isaiah 62:1—underscoring His faithful covenantal promise.
 

Seeing that immediately prompted me to stop climbing and intercede for Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Israel’s outer most parts regarding the new year.

 

2026

ISAIAH 62:1

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

and for JERUSALEM’S SAKE I will not keep quiet,

until her RIGHTEOUSNESS goes forth like brilliance,

and her SALVATION burns like a torch.

 

Beloved, please wear that promise close to your spiritual chest this year. Because no matter what we see or hear in 2026 and no matter how things are shaken, God’s Word stands. For Israel . . . and His scriptural promises for you.

 

His Word is His Character and

His Character is manifested in His Promises.

 

Stalwart, enduring, unwavering, mighty, victorious.

 
 

❖❖❖❖

 

HIS CLEFT-ETCHED WORDS

THEIR LINK & MEANING IN 2026

 

Continuing the climb, my eyes caught sight of etchings in the clefts where my left and right hands were reaching. The etchings were scripture references: Psalm 21 and Isaiah 53.

 

Earlier rabbinic and later Christian scholars regard Psalm 21 and Isaiah 53 as messianic. Wording in the psalm indicates a kingship far beyond the natural, far beyond King David’s earthly reign. It reveals a royal, everlasting kingship that only our Messiah can hold.

 

Psalm 21 is a secure cleft, an anchor point of David’s thanksgiving for God’s salvation and exaltation of our Messiah King, who comes from the line of David and rises out of an eternity-changing anchor-point: the Messiah’s suffering, as described in Isaiah 53.

 

Beloved one, reflect on these scriptures. They’re two sides of the same messianic coin, so to speak—each side a reminder, a promise, a hope, an eternal gift, an indelible focal point for your 2026 walk with God to keep you steady within His guardrails.

 

PSALM 21

(appearing as my left hand was placed in a secured cleft)

 

Cling to these Anchor Points:

Jesus/Yeshua, Exalted (vs 3-6, 13)

Victorious (vs 8-13)

Eternally Reigning Savior-King, Judge of the whole Earth (vs 4, 8-13)

His Mighty Resurrection over death (vs 4, 6)

 

ISAIAH 53

(appearing as my right hand was placed in a secured cleft)

 

Cling to these Anchor Points:

Yeshua, the Sacrificial Lamb of God (vs 3, 7-8)

Crucifixion-Atonement (vs 4-6)

Redemptive Work, freed us from the Slave Market of Sin (vs 5-6, 11)

Promised Salvation (vs 4, 10-12)

 

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A FINAL ENCOURAGEMENT

 

In the natural around us, the battles will rage on.

 

But in God’s realm—in His Kingdom that is assuredly coming—the battle has been handled. Won.

 

Our King reigns and will reign forever and ever.

 

Beloved, rest in that, confidently. Breathe it all in.

 

Our LORD is not a man that He should lie . . . and He cannot and will not change His character. (Malachi 3:6, Psalm 102: 27, Hebrews 13:8)

 

So let your soul rejoice in His trustworthy rest . . . raise your timbrels and glorify His Name, the Great I AM!

 

Just as Jewish and Gentile believers shouted praise at His Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, so we again will shout at His Second Coming when He takes His rightful throne!

 

Hosanna! Our King is victorious!

Hosanna! Our King is victorious!

Hosanna to the Son of David!

 

Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!

 

BLESSED BE HIS GLORIOUS NAME:

FAITHFUL and TRUE (Revelation 19:11)

 
 
 

PHOTO CREDITS

Lighthouse by Michael Krahn on Unsplash

Rock climber’s hands by TG23 on iStock

 

MUSIC CREDITS

Inward Voice: Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/brock-hewitt-stories-in-sound/inward-voice
License code: WMZ9JURP8LGBVNFB

 

Hosanna! Our King is victorious! is a few-seconds excerpt from The Chosen’s season 4 that is included under Fair Use to further educate and edify, because this Flashes of Lightning post teaches and encourages reader-listeners of His 2026 watchwords and His faithfulness and heart-call for us to seek His face and actively trust Him.

 

The biblical link between the chant of ancient Israel for King David and the Triumphal entry of Yeshua is extended in this post to us here and now, reminding reader-listeners that His Millennial Kingdom and eternal reign is coming and that He is still on the throne faithful, true, victorious, majestic, our blessed hope, and, thus, the brief musical clip’s use is transformed and expanded further by the uniqueness of the 2026 In The Cleft of the Rock watchwords, images, visions, and scriptures the Lord gave me on New Year’s Eve (e.g. seek His face and stay in His Presence to enter/dwell/reside in His rest, Exodus 19, Isaiah 62, Israel as His focus/His faithfulness to her and, with that, to believers, Psalm 21, Isaiah 53, Psalm 29, Revelation 19:11, Malachi 3:6, Psalm 102:27, Hebrews 13:8, Matthew 8, John 6, wheat/Bread of Life, daffodils/shofar/His shofar-resounding voice at Sinai, shofar call to action and thus our remaining steeled in/by His promises).

 

All of His 2026 watchword message is given to share with others as led, to encourage my blog prayer partners and others as well as those He may lead to this site because His Word is His Character and His Character is manifested in His Promises.

 

The heavenly chamber. The Father’s urgent call. The exhortation. Three components of 2025’s watchwords from New Year’s Eve intercession.

 

I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what He will say to me.” —Habakkuk 2:1
 

© desireofmysoul.faith (.com and .org) & SoulBreaths.com. All rights reserved.

 

READING TIME: 8-10 MINUTES

 
 

WATCHWORD GIVEN: At the stroke of midnight (heralding in January 1, 2025) through the third watch (midnight to 3 am).

 
 

A distinct vision stood before me during my latest New Year’s Eve midnight rendezvous with God, a longstanding, specially designated intercessory appointment for the coming year’s watchwords.

 
 

But in the weeks prior, He’d given guideposts that I recorded—three spiritual dreams, followed by a fourth in the early hours of New Year’s. Each vivid, each a brick in the buildup to round out the 2025 watchwords.

 

Only excerpts of two dreams—the third and fourth that sandwiched the New Year’s Eve intercession, titled below—are woven into the last section of this post.

 

Dream 3. White Parchment: stand fiercely

Dream 4. Gowned Bride Running Late: discern the schemes

 

The other two watchword-dreams appear in separate prior posts, though connected: Buffet, No Food and 61/22.

 

For easy reading, this post is divided under three subheads:

The Heavenly Chamber. The Father’s Urgent Call. The Exhortation.

 

 
 

THE HEAVENLY CHAMBER

 

As the Holy Spirit surrounded me after midnight, He soon brought me to an ethereal, broad yet unwalled chamber, embodied in a heavenly white with delicate, regal architecture rising in the distant front.

 

A chamber . . .

 

Purified.

Sanctified.

Set apart. Intimate.

Holy. Kadosh. (קָדוֹשׁ)

Ensconced in immeasurable awe and reverence.

A stilling, holy quiet.

 

A heavenly prayer chamber that hushed a thousand questions . . . and a thousand more concerns. Hamakom (המקום)—the place, His place where shalom is inhaled and exhaled. Where my soul can see this world and pray from Heaven’s eyes, from Heaven’s heart.

 

I was alone in the white silence but not alone. My King’s presence was with me. For He is Hamakom Hakadosh (המקום הקדוש), The Holy Place.

 

Song of Solomon 1:4

Draw me after you and let’s run together!

The king has brought me into his chambers.

 

God’s Desire. Our King yearns for one thing in His bridal prayer chamber: You.

 

You, rushing to Him more often, with more longing for Him and more intentionality. Sitting in His holy quiet. An act of worship. An act of honest love. Allowing the flames of His heart to ignite the flames of yours.

 

A heaven-earth convergence. Where you abandon all defaults, rote wording and thinking. Instead, listening for His words. His lead. There, a deeper work begins within you, little by little, in His time, burning off the dross, melting away the hardness, kashering (making ready for use) your soul so you can walk in maturity and intercede with prayers led by Heaven.

 

“Come to me,” says the Lord in Matthew 11:28 to the tired, weary, burdened. “Come,” says the Holy Spirit in Revelation 22:17. “Come! Let the one who is thirsty come.”

 

“Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” —Jeremiah 33:3

 
 

 
 

THE FATHER’S URGENT CALL

 

During that same midnight-onward intercession on New Year’s Eve, while my arms were lifted and far apart, the LORD placed a large word into my open hands. The word—ZION—extended from one outstretched hand to the other.

 

That word—encompassing Israel and Jerusalem—has been the center of my personal prophetic intercessory calling for many years. And although He was confirming something in that image and in another image immediately following it, I sensed that this first word-image was a clarion 2025 call to believers everywhere.

 

Prayer focused on Israel/Jerusalem is what the Father is setting in our hands. It’s His heart call and a biblical command . . . and critical in this turbulent time in Israel—and for what lies ahead that only He knows.

 

Not only is Zion surrounded by a growing list of terroristic, demonic-driven enemies in a world drunk on anti-semitism, but she is THE EPICENTER of God’s unfolding last-days prophetic events.

 

Remember . . . Adonai says, “You are my Servant, Israel, through whom I’ll show my glory . . . and who says, “I will make you a light to the nations so my Salvation can spread to the ends of the earth.” —Isaiah 49:3,6

 

Of course, that doesn’t negate battling in prayer for the numerous other issues blanketing our lives and the world. It all matters to God. Every detail. Every heartache. Every tear. He is faithful and true—to Israel and to you.

 

May we be obedient and revere the LORD at all times

who calls Jerusalem the pupil of His eye and says that He will be

“a wall of fire to her on all sides,

and He will be the glory in her midst.”

—Zechariah 2:5

 

(A cursory list of scripture-reminders are at the end of this post.)

 
 

 
 

THE EXHORTATION: TWO DREAM ALERTS

 

Can you discern the enemy’s slick games and twisted words? These two dream excerpts—given to me as bookends to the New Year’s Eve watchwords—are a heads-up to what may be pulling on you and confirm God’s authority over it all.

 

WHITE PARCHMENT

Stand fiercely

 

Throughout the dream, I was clutching a rectangular white parchment-like bag, holding it near to my chest. It was about 18 inches long and 16 inches wide. The feel of the parchment was vivid through the dream and after I woke up.

 

A small group of people also were there. We sat in a car, darkened inside as if we were parked at night with the car and lights turned off and no street lights.

 

I sat in the middle backseat, seemingly trapped. Two darkened figures sat on other side of me. Another darkened figure sat facing forward in the front passenger side.

 

I knew the contents of the parchment bag held proof that these people had hidden, deceiving plans, the antithesis of how they were portraying themselves to others.

 

I kept expecting them to haul off and grab the parchment since it would expose their whole game plan–strategies, deceit, phony ways, lies. But instead, they kept eyeing the bag while trying to convince me they were good people and that I just didn’t understand them. They wanted me to go somewhere with them to talk about it.

 

Nope. I didn’t trust them and kept guarding the parchment.

 

Then a blonde-ish haired male figure entered the car and slid into the driver’s seat. Clearly he held some level of leadership or power. He came across as dangerous and certainly not trustworthy, a true manipulator and out to destroy or harm and sway. Whether that intent was to harm me in order to get to the bag, I didn’t know.

 

I could see a bit more of him, unlike the darkened, shadowed, faceless figures that were shrouded in the car. Interestingly, he never completely turned to see me straight on, face to face. That seemed sly-like. So I gripped the parchment tighter and kept rejecting their claims of having good intentions, as if the content in my parchment bag was false.

 

Eventually, we got out of the car. No one attempted to rob the parchment. We all stood there, them waiting for me to go with them for more discussion.

 

I didn’t. Instead, they watched me walk away clutching the parchment bag of proof.

 

Why? I believe it was because they had to. They had no authority to take the parchment or me. But they were permitted to try to tempt, lure, deceive, sway me.

 

Bottom line. I may have kept the parchment close to me, but the parchment was really keeping me. It exposed the twisted words, lies, sway of the enemy. Because the parchment was the Word of God. In the dream, it was symbolic of the ancient biblical scrolls written on parchment paper.

 

GOWNED BRIDE RUNNING LATE

Discern the enemy’s schemes

 

If you’re a born-again believer in Jesus our Messiah, you’re His Bride, the Betrothed. And with that, there’s a cautionary tale here in this short dream excerpt.

 

I was dressed in a bridal gown but couldn’t leave for the wedding. My groom was waiting at the altar, yet well-meaning people kept stopping me from leaving. Everyone had a need, so I hurried and helped this one and then that one and another and another . . . but time was running out. If I didn’t leave, I definitely was going to be late for my wedding!

 

As I turned again to go, two people stopped me. One actually grabbed my arm, pointed to a woman, and in a near-convincing tone said, “But she needs you, she’s going through so much.” Well, no argument there. The woman legitimately was distraught.

 

Pressed, I had to decide. A Mary vs a Martha moment. I’m both at times, divergent. But my longtime intercessory calling, ministry, and comfort are totally the Mary side. When the rising needs of others nudge into my Mary space, I can get pushed out of that comfort zone and into the Martha zone.

 

The merciful Martha seeing the heaviness weighing on others, busy wanting to bless them, nourish them (spiritually and physically) as a service before God. But the lovesick, grateful, WORD-student Mary in me hungers for His voice and presence, the quietness He gives my soul. Only then can my Mary-ness rise, spiritually realigned and refilled, to bring a refreshing cup of water (spiritual and otherwise) to others.

 

How it had to play out. In the dream, the need this distraught woman had was great . . . but the pull to obey and keep my word to my groom was stronger. How could I dishonor the One who rescued me, who deserves all my love, by keeping him waiting even longer at the altar?

 

Or do I prayerfully trust God, follow His timing and lead, and obediently run to fulfill my intimate appointment with my groom, resting in the fact that God will love on this troubled woman, calling forth the exact source of help needed for her situation?

 

Legitimate needs are everywhere. And however we can help, as He leads, we should. But if it’s at the expense of what our King, our Groom, has called us to—like meeting Him when called into the holy prayer chamber, resting when He tells us, getting out of His way when instructed, etc.—then it’s outside of our abilities at that moment.

 

Sure, it can be a precarious line. And some may not understand. But that fine line must be walked in obedience, His leading, His balance. That means stepping aside and trusting Him in the process. We’re not the default rescuer for life’s situations. God is the preeminent one. No default required. Ever.

 

And when God does move in their situation using whatever unexpected resource He chooses, He alone will get the glory and the person’s faith and relationship with Him will grow.
 
 

THE 2025 TAKEAWAY

Four watchword-actions for this year:

 

1. Run to His holy prayer chamber often

2. Intercede for the Father’s heart (Zion)

3. Study/know/fiercely stand on the Word (the holy parchment) to confront the enemy

4. Watch out for spiritual disrupters disguised with legitimate needs that rob your time with Him and whatever He’s called you to at that time

 

***

 
 

ZION: Father’s Heart Scriptures

Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; May they prosper those who love you.

 

Isaiah 25:25. Here is Adonai’s answer [to Israel]: Even a warrior’s captives will be snatched away, and the booty of the fearful will be freed. I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children.

 

Isaiah 52:8 Listen! Your watchmen are raising their voices. They’re shouting for joy together for they will see before their own eyes when Adonai restores Zion.

 

Isaiah 62:1,6,7

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a torch that is burning.

On your walls, Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent.

You who profess the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem an object of praise on the earth.

 
 

PHOTO CREDITS

Lighthouse by Michael Krahn on Unsplash

White cathedral arches by Sophie Soilmann on Unsplash

Israeli pin, kippah, flag by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

Bride scaling rock by Dylan Siebelink on Unsplash.